F1 Fanatic round-up

As today’s round-up was being finished reports began to emerge that former F1 medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins had passed away.

The reports about Watkins, who turned 84 last week, are yet to be officially confirmed. Many of those who knew him and were treated by him have paid tribute to one of the sport’s most respected figures whose work undoubtedly saved lives:

It was Sid Watkins that saved my life in Imola 94.great guy to be with,always happy…tks for everything u have done for us drivers.RIP

“Should you shut off that option somehow by enclosing the wheels but leave the cockpit open? Or leave the wheels open and create more cockpit protection? Personally, I feel stopping cars launching is a bigger priority, if only because I think that happens more often.”

“Next season is too early. I’m very pleased for him because first of all it showed that our choice when we picked up him as a young driver was good. Then it is thanks to Sauber, thanks to the Ferrari Academy, he grow up.”

Comment of the day

I just think that budget caps approach the problem from the wrong direction. It doesn?óÔé¼Ôäót make sense that you have a formula with technical regulations which, by their nature, make it very expensive to make even midfield level cars, then you try to tell people not to spend too much money.

Surely a better approach would involve a little more blue-sky thinking. Start with a blank sheet of paper and try to thrash out some regulations which could result in cars which are broadly as fast as they are now, but which are significantly cheaper to make.

Look at engine regulations as they currently stand. On what planet is a small displacement, normally aspirated V8 revving to 18,000rpm a good, cheap solution?

F1 engines make between 7-800bhp. There are supercars on the road with engines which make that power reliably for 50,000 miles plus, and cost a fraction of the amount an F1 engine does. Of course these are large, heavy engines which aren?óÔé¼Ôäót hugely sophisticated.

And yet look at other racing series. Le Mans prototypes make that power, and their engines are high-tech and complex, stressed components, with more road relevance than F1 engines, yet they?óÔé¼Ôäóre comparatively very cheap and even more reliable. So what?óÔé¼Ôäós all that money spent in F1 actually achieving? A nice noise?

If you sat down with a group of very good F1 engineers, and set them a goal of coming up with a formula which gave you cars which could get round a circuit as quickly as they do now, but cost half the money to develop and build, I bet they could do it. I bet they?óÔé¼Ôäód be even more reliable than they are now.

This is what annoys me about budget caps; the sport is unnecessarily expensive in the first place. The change in engines in 2014 is going to make it even more expensive than it is now. And that?óÔé¼Ôäós with no appreciable improvement in the aesthetics or the nature of competition.

Why start with a formula which is fundamentally hugely expensive, and then tell teams off for spending lots of money on competing, when surely the sensible thing is to look at how you can make the sport much cheaper in the first place.@MazdaChris

On the other hand they clamped down hard on Renault/Lotus’s various suspension developments like the mass dampers and anti-brake-dive system. That stuff seems a lot more interesting and relevant to the real world.

For that matter, there are still all those flaps and complex aero forward of the driver that seem pointlessly expensive to develop. Like Ferrari periodically says, I’d rather see more development on the mechanical and engine side.

All the development costs come because the FIA keep changing the regulations – if they were to leave them consistent for a few years and not outlaw everything innovative that any teams come up with then after a couple of seasons the costs would reduce as everyone would have developed their own versions of all the ‘toys’

Take the EBD as an example – Red Bull spend 2 years perfecting it, other teams were catching up so they outlaw it this year. The result – the teams spend millions and millions trying to get the coanda-effect exhausts working.

F-duct – they outlawed the system after most teams had developed it and got it working… then they introduce DRS which again costs millions to develop and pretty much does exactly the same thing. They could have simply kept the f-duct and put some sort of control switch on it so it could be used in the same way as DRS is now.

The FIA is constantly on about cost cutting be it through various caps on wind tunnel usage, resources etc but what they really need to focus on is finding something else to fill their time and justify their purpose than constant regulation re-writing.

I like change but the FIA shouldn’t say you can’t spend more, you can’t have this innovation BUT you can spend millions developing this…

I can sort of get on board with what Montezemolo is saying about Perez. The guy is a great, great driver, but he does just lack experience. It’s evident that he can manage tyres and overtake but he also needs to be put through his paces in other ways. Sauber have a good car this year and Perez has displayed great respect for his tyres (I mention tyres because they are so key these days) in both seasons but if Ferrari hang on for a third year then they can only get more certain about him. They know that Perez would go to them in a flash so why rush? He’s unlikely to move anywhere else. Bring him in for 2014 I say. Fresh start with new engines and new regs.

He’s actually been quite pathetic in qualifying all year….and Koba’s no alonso. I think he first has to demonstrate that he’s a well-rounded driver,and not someone who can hit the sweet spot with these crazy 2012 Pirellis.

@chicanef1 Pretty much what I’m getting at really. Having a well rounded package isn’t easy to come by but that said, many people had their doubts about Vettel but recently he has shown he can work his way through the field on pure driving skill alone.

Can’t see why everyone is commenting Perez could be a future multiple WDC or other senseless stuff like that. He was beaten by Kobayashi last year and let’s face it, Koba isn’t exactly a Hamilton, and was very lucky this year to make the most out of a car who conserves tyres better than anything else and was recognized by both Sauber and Marko as the fastest during the last two high-speed circuits.

Yeah he could be improving but next year the Sauber could very well lose all its unique characteristics and Perez be beaten yet again by Kobayashi. Remember Kubica and Heidfield. Great drivers, but they simply aren’t cut from the same cloth as Vettel, Schumi, Hamilton etc. And at least Kubica was #1 in the championship at one point…

Alonso would demolish Perez if they were on the same team. Also, if they are really going for Vettel in 2014 that means Alonso isn’t exactly “afraid” of anyone is he. Unless you guys want to rate Perez above Vettel…